You may have seen in it in the paper or even on this newscast – the PUC has a new rate setting methodology. And if you can plow through all the verbiage – then you probably figured out that the more things change the more they remain the same. What do we mean by that? Even though there is a new rate setting methodology, your light bill isn’t going up – at least not for the month of October.
The new method is supposed to factor in the cost of power – which should be down right now because oil prices have tumbled since those rates were set in June. So why then aren’t you getting a rebate? Well that’s a long and complex story, but it seems the PUC’s strategy is to use the low cost of fuel as a sort of credit and weigh it against next year’s dry season when hydro production is down.
And while that’s the very small change version, you can find the whole technical explanation on the PUC’s website.
